Hello, everyone! We already announced this a while back on our Discord Server: Update 9 will be moved to next month to accommodate some more features and suggestions. Because Update 9 is titled Suggestions, it looks like some players think that we are nearly done with the game - why else are we already focusing on player suggestions? We'd like to clarify a few things about that.
We have a Suggestions channel on our discord page that has been going on ever since the game went live. However, we have been busy the past year finishing major game features, so we didn't really have a lot of time to implement most of them. Now that we just recently completed the important core structure and mechanics of the game, it felt like a really good time to take a breather and allot some time for player feedback - after all it's an important purpose of being in Early Access.
While the update will introduce a lot of small features and quality of life improvements suggested by players, we are also introducing some tweaks that should add challenge to the game. However, this wouldn't be significantly noticeable yet. The update after this one will flesh out our approach to game difficulty some more.
We still have some ways to go before we exit Early Access. Our current estimate is that it will likely be around middle of next year. In addition, exiting Early Access doesn't mean the complete end of development for the game - it simply means the game is already in a fully enjoyable and stable state.